Received in my Gmail this very morning…
[i]Welcome to the IT PRO newsletter for Friday 17 July.
There?s something about the Gary McKinnon case that keeps drawing attention ? and high-profile backers. The admitted hacker has been fighting extradition to the US, where he reportedly faces decades in prison for sneaking into Pentagon and NASA computers.
McKinnon and his campaigners ? which now include his mom, Sting?s wife, Boris Johnson, the Daily Mail and now even the Conservative Party ? want him to be tried in the UK, as he?ll face fewer years in prison and will be able to stay on home soil.
Anyone facing time in jail would likely prefer that option, but as McKinnon suffers from Asperger?s syndrome, it has now become a human rights issue to keep him from cross the pond, as the stress would be too much for him.
The Conservatives this week jumped on the bandwagon and took the issue to parliament ? forget the economy, swine flu, the Afghan death toll, this is important ? but the Government said there?s nothing they can do.
I don?t think McKinnon should be sent to the US. He should be tried here, and be given house arrest and not be allowed to play around on computers anymore. That?s about it.
What he did was basically graffiti. He did it at the wrong time and the wrong place ? imagine what would have happened to someone who broke into Pentagon grounds post-9/11 to spray paint the walls? They would have been shot. (I?m not saying that?s a sane response, but Gary should be glad he was out of range.)
Others disagree, and say the hack was the biggest in US military history and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to clean up after.
What do you think? Should McKinnon be tried in the UK? Or should he be sent to the US to face up for what he?s done there? Or is this all just a storm in a teacup? Answers to the usual place:[/i] comments@itpro.co.uk.
Maybe I can garner some American response to a ‘purely British situation’.
